Rear Caliper Frozen up

Hello Ive got a 98 and the rear caliper is locked up i ordered a new one and seems pretty straight forward with the e brake cable and one bolt holding the brake line was wondering if you have any tips at this point about bleeding the brakes any help will do thnx!!

take needle nose vise grips and lock them over the brake hose.not too tight,just enough to stop fluid flow. remove the old caliper.replace with new caliper and remove the vise grip once everything is tight and in place. reinstal new pads and reconnect to rear control arm bracket. bleed .done.

robotennis61 wrote:

take needle nose vise grips and lock them over the brake hose.not too tight,just enough to stop fluid flow. remove the old caliper.replace with new caliper and remove the vise grip once everything is tight and in place. reinstal new pads and reconnect to rear control arm bracket. bleed .done.

Awesome didnt think about that thank you. and when i bleed it does the car have to been on or no just wondering because of the ABS and this is my first car with 4 wheel disc brakes. thanks

MrWood88 wrote:

robotennis61 wrote:

take needle nose vise grips and lock them over the brake hose.not too tight,just enough to stop fluid flow. remove the old caliper.replace with new caliper and remove the vise grip once everything is tight and in place. reinstal new pads and reconnect to rear control arm bracket. bleed .done.

Awesome didnt think about that thank you. and when i bleed it does the car have to been on or no just wondering because of the ABS and this is my first car with 4 wheel disc brakes. thanks

You don't have to start the car. You can bleed the brake lines with it off.

robotennis61 wrote:

take needle nose vise grips and lock them over the brake hose.not too tight,just enough to stop fluid flow. remove the old caliper.replace with new caliper and remove the vise grip once everything is tight and in place. reinstal new pads and reconnect to rear control arm bracket. bleed .done.

doesn't that (pliers) damage the brake hose?

nah.ya gotta just barely squeeze the hose with the vise grips.it doesnt take much.a little squeeze will do ya.just enough to stop the flow.i wouldnt recomend squeezing SS lines.but ive done it.i know how.the id of the rubber brake line is small.dont take much.

robotennis61 wrote:

nah.ya gotta just barely squeeze the hose with the vise grips.it doesnt take much.a little squeeze will do ya.just enough to stop the flow.i wouldnt recomend squeezing SS lines.but ive done it.i know how.the id of the rubber brake line is small.dont take much.

OK I think I get it.

Not something I would do because of the construction of brake hose and the tendency of older hoses to collapse internally under certain conditions -- but I can imagine how that could work. What I have done in the past is to get the new caliper set to install by hanging it in the area with a bent coat hanger, then take the hose off the old caliper and immediately put it on the new with a new crush washer or to have the new ready and do the swap on the mounts while letting the hose drain into a jar. Then again, I have a power bleeder, the bleed does not take long at all.

Thinking about your approach Robo - because of the teeth on the vise grips it might be a good idea to wrap the hose in a rag or rubber scrap at the pinch point first, then pinch.

Also now that we are on the subject I dimly recall seeing a pinch device that was something like a couple smooth metal dowels that could be locked in a pinch on a rubber brake hose. I bet NAPA and the gearhead parts sites (summit racing?!?!) have them but I don't know.

So... back to the OP's original question... if you search on this site you will find good discussion of bleeding brakes including instructions on how to build your own power bleeder from a hand-pumped pneumatic garden sprayer. If you use a power bleeder, you can flush the old brake fluid - which you need to do anyway to prevent wet fluid form jamming up your ABS. Finally, you'll get a somewhat firmer pedal if you also switch from DOT3 to synthetic DOT3, 3/4 or 4 fluid when you flush the old.

I usually take a vacuum cap and stick it in the banjo hole, or over the end of the exposed brake line to stop the fluid pouring out. Cheap and easy, and no risk to the hose!

Gravity bleeding is so slow, you can swap in the hose to the new caliper without loosing much fluid at all. It's a good idea to bleed the lines and replace with new fluid anyway if it hasn't been done before.

I was thinking of buying a "one person" brake bleeder is the hand pump kind the brake bleeder ok. the one thats on here seems like a whole project in itslef and alot of running around for pieces and im trying to get it bled and back on the road asap.